Teen was driving drunk, DA says

Joe McDonaldOf The Morning Call

Kyle M. Kehler, 18, was drunk behind the wheel of the car that crashed Sunday in Palmer Township, killing two Easton Area High School students who were with him, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli says.

''He was definitely over the legal limit,'' Morganelli said Thursday.

Also, he and the prosecutor handling the case said the party that Kehler, Michael R. Cummings and Amanda Leigh Schultz attended at a Palmer home wasn't the only one going on the night before the high-speed accident.

''They were at more than one location,'' Morganelli said. ''I don't know if it was two or three, but they were bopping around.''

Assistant District Attorney William Blake added, ''Now it's a matter of sifting through who was where at what time.''

Kehler was released from the hospital Wednesday. Attempts to contact him at his home on Victoria Lane in Palmer were unsuccessful.

On Thursday morning, hundreds of students attended the funeral for Schultz at St. Andrew's Evangelical Lutheran Church on Freemansburg Avenue in Palmer. The 16-year-old varsity soccer player from Palmer was buried at Forks Church Cemetery in Forks Township.

Cummings, the 18-year-old high school football team quarterback from Forks, was buried Wednesday. He and Schultz died at 6:30 a.m. Sunday when Kehler's car hit a tree in the 3000 block of Southwood Drive in Palmer.

Police said a news conference on the crash is scheduled for this afternoon, but they did not say if an arrest is pending.

Morganelli said his office received Kehler's blood-alcohol level late Thursday. Though he did not have the test results in hand, he said Kehler exceeded the legal limit in Pennsylvania. That's a blood-alcohol level of 0.02 percent for underage drivers like Kehler, and 0.08 percent for drivers 21 and older.

Within hours of the crash, Palmer police got a warrant to search the house at 140 Applewood Drive, where Christopher Snyder, Rita Filowitz and her daughter Ilyse live. Ilyse was Schultz's best friend. The house is less than a mile from where the accident happened.

Police seized an empty case of beer, a bottle of rum and other items, including empty beer cans and digital cameras they believe had images of an underage drinking party held Saturday night into Sunday morning while Snyder and Rita Filowitz were not home.

Morganelli and Blake did not say where the other parties were held that night. Nor have they said how fast they believe Kehler was driving, though they have said he was speeding.

In court papers, police say they might file homicide by vehicle charges and charges relating to where the teens got the liquor for the party.

Meanwhile, St. Andrew's Church will offer grief counseling 4:30-6 p.m. Sunday at the church at 3900 Freemansburg Ave. It also is inviting students, family and friends to use the church's Heritage Garden to mourn and meditate.